When Belfast songwriter Joshua Burnside began writing It’s Not Going to Be Okay, he wasn’t chasing a concept. He was trying to survive. The album was born from loss, written in the quiet aftermath of his closest friend Dean Jendoubi’s passing. In that stillness, Burnside stripped everything back. Gone were the dense textures and surreal folk tales; what remained were bare, trembling songs that told the truth.

Recorded alone in his small room at Vault Artist Studios, the record captures an artist letting the mask slip completely. “I didn’t want to rely on weird sounds or quirky production,” he says. “I wanted the songs to stand on their own.” 

Across these songs, Burnside finds beauty in fragility: the quiet ache of “Moon High,” the defiant humour of “Good Times,” the cathartic surrender of the title track. Known for blending Irish folk with electronic experimentation, here he distills everything to its emotional core.

After the acclaim of Teeth of Time, praised by MOJO, Uncut, and BBC 6Music, Burnside enters a new chapter, carrying his grief, his wit, and his wild heart into an East Coast US tour, Other Voices in Dingle, and a 2026 UK and EU headline run.

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